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Operation: Mindcrime, Live At 013 Tilburg, 27 November 2015

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I know the band Queensrÿche for quite some years, sadly I never had the chance to see the band live. Geoff Tate, the former singer of Queensrÿche, was going to play the band’s well known album Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety at 013 in Tilburg. Since Geoff isn’t the current singer of Queenrÿche anymore he made his own band, carrying the same name as the mentioned album. Geoff surrounded himself with wonderful musicians for which some are very well known; Kelly Gray (Queensrÿche/Slave Of The System) on guitars, John Moyer (Disturbed) on bass guitar, Simon Wright (AC/DC, Dio) on drums, Randy Gane on Keyboards and Scott Moughton on guitars.

Once I entered the venue I noticed that the back of the venue was closed off with a fence. The venue itself was full but not crowded. The stage was big but empty, there was no big banner at the back of the stage for example. The keyboards and drums were far in the back of the stage too in my opinion. The light show was far from spectacular, there were some lights on the stage but there wasn’t much going on. Luckily the band was very spectacular to watch. It was great to see Kelly, Scott and John use the whole stage while they were playing. They never stayed on the same place. Geoff is a very theatrical man. He walks around on stage, making a lot of arm gestures while singing and performing. He also gave some people who were at the front of the stage a handshake while he continued to sing.

The audience was really enjoying the performance of the band. A lot of people sang along with Speak and clapped along spontaneously during Spreading The Disease. After playing the album Operation: Mindcrime Geoff spoke to the audience. He told that the album was recorded somewhere in Hilversum, the Netherlands but he couldn’t remember the name of the studio and asked the audience if they knew. Some people in the audience answered with screaming “Wisseloord” to him. Geoff continued his speech and told that he and the band are going to play tracks from their latest album called The Key, which is also Operation: Mindcrime’s debut album. Geoff told the audience that the album is the start of a concept album trilogy. They played three tracks from the album. Geoff wanted to throw his microphone stand to the side of the stage but hit the stage gear of Kelly instead. Geoff apologized, made a joke towards the audience and said that everything that does not supposed to happen happens anyway.

The band surprised the audience because they started to play more Queensrÿche songs. After playing Take Hold Of The Flame the band left the stage, but they came back pretty fast. Geoff made a joke that it always takes so long when bands enter the stage again for an encore. He introduced the band to the audience and also made some jokes again while introducing the band members. Before they started to play Silent Lucidity Geoff said that the song is both suitable for weddings and funerals. The audience really loved it that they played this beautiful track. The band played four tracks as an encore, which is great. I don’t know many bands that would play at least four tracks.

They played for two hours, but those two hours went by very fast for me. This band knows how to entertain the audience with good music and playing very tight. I hope to see them live again soon with more music from their most recent album(s). I do think that this band is better off on a slightly smaller stage.